Modern Criminal Policy Regarding Corruption Crimes: Lessons and Results

The author studies the history of the law on counteracting crimes and the changes in criminal legislation in the sphere of counteracting crimes of corruption, as well as the statistics on registration and the court practice on key corruption crimes to formulate the lessons of counteracting corruption in Russia. They are as following. Lesson one: it is absolutely necessary to carry out a thorough criminological analysis of the consequences of legislation amendments. Lesson two: counteraction to the key crime of corruption — bribery (the core of corruption) cannot be solely directed against bribegivers (as it is now) or bribetakers. Corruption is a two-sided criminal transaction and, in order to make progress, the counteraction should also be two-sided. Lesson three of corruption counteraction: stricter punishments do not lead to a reduction in crime. It is necessary to look for other ways of influencing it. Besides, there should be a correlation between punishments for crimes of corruption and punishments that, conditionally, determine the price of crime — punishments for murder, severe bodily harm, violent infringements on property. Lesson four: the list of penalties for taking bribes should be enlarged at the legislative level. It should include obligatory work (with certain amendments to the General Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for persons guilty of corruption crimes — longer hours, socially necessary work carried out in public places, stricter norms on substituting this penalty for others, etc.), compulsory work (possibly, also with some amendments). Lesson five of corruption counteraction: incarceration should be reduced, at the legislative level, for all corruption crimes involving bribing; sanctions for all infringements of small and medium gravity should exclude it.